Who Noticed The Massive Change To Reddit Subs?

[HenryObi]

I noticed a lot of subs I used to frequent had their subscribers count dropped and replaced with something else. A sub that had close to 200k subs showing, now shows about 30k

According to this Verge article, Reddit is replacing the sub count with average of visitors of the sub the past 7 days.

Here's an excerpt:

The member count is being replaced by two metrics. One shows how many users have visited a subreddit in the past seven days, “based on a rolling 28-day average,” according to Reddit, and the other displays how many contributions have been made in the past seven days, excluding any posts or comments that have been removed. The change aims to provide a better glimpse at how active a subreddit actually is, as Redditors may simply be “lurking” in these communities without adding content or engaging in conversations.

Did anyone of you with large subs experience this?

 

[atlas_http]

Yes, Reddit's claim is that large membership counts favor older subreddits so they want to show by activity (presumably to mask membership counts on newer subreddits to keep engagement up).

However, this hasn't been reflected in their algorithm or usage. Larger subreddits with less activity relative to newer subreddits get far more upvotes and are overwhelmingly more likely to hit the frontpage. One reason is reflected in user behavior: social media users typically just scroll their feed, upvote, and move on. They're not actively seeking out those higher membership subreddits and refreshing the page. Therefore, you get "lower traffic" subreddits that are magnets for karma because the traffic from the homepage feed is still much higher than on newer subreddits.

So, in your case, the 200K sub will still get far more total activity per post, even if the "traffic" shows 30K, relative to a 30K member subreddit in the same niche.

 

[shijin]

Feels like another step toward forcing everyone to post and farm karma just to look active

 

[HenryObi]

So, in your case, the 200K sub will still get far more total activity per post, even if the "traffic" shows 30K, relative to a 30K member subreddit in the same niche.

Yes, the sub is a generally active one.

 

[RyanMercer12]

I kinda miss the old numbers though, it felt more satisfying seeing big counts.

 

[calebhamilton]

Yeah, I noticed that too. My subs dropped a lot overnight. Guess Reddit wants to show active users instead of total members now.

 

[harperprice9]

Makes sense now why some of my favorite subs look so small all of a sudden.

 

[HenryObi]

Yeah, I noticed that too. My subs dropped a lot overnight. Guess Reddit wants to show active users instead of total members now.

Yea, it gives real idea on how many people actually visit a sub. The numbers from some subs surprised me. There's a sub with over 300k members, but now less than 40k active users. There's another that's almost the opposite.

Makes sense now why some of my favorite subs look so small all of a sudden.

Yea. I was shocked too the first time

 

[ethanbrooks32]

Looks like Reddit is trying to show active engagement instead of just raw numbers.

 

[laylasanders58]

Some of my subs dropped drastically in displayed numbers, but posts and engagement are fine.